MARIETTA, Ohio – It was feeding time at the Zoo for the Otterbein offense to begin the BSN Sports Invitational Thursday afternoon at Marietta, as the Cardinals slugged their way to a 15-6 victory in neutral-site action vs. Kalamazoo.

The Cardinals (12-3) smacked around 19 hits on the day, scoring a combined nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings to leave little doubt in the outcome.

Kalamazoo, going 27-13 last season after winning the MIAA Tournament to make the NCAA Regional, now sits an even 3-3 on its young season.

HOW IT PLAYED OUT:

• The Hornets benefited from a two-out error by the Cardinals in the first, where a dropped fly ball eventually led to three unearned runs.
   
• Otterbein shrugged that off no time, getting a three-run homer from Brayden Quincel in the bottom of the inning to quickly knot the game back up.
   
• The Cards trailed 4-3 before a huge middle portion of the contest, batting around in the bottom of the fourth to eventually plate five runs. Gavin Wolf launched a solo home run to ignite the frame and Noah Sprowls joined the long-ball action minutes later with a three-run blast himself.
   
• Jamie Perebzak cleared the bases with a three-run double in the fifth inning to officially blow the game open, pushing Otterbein ahead 12-4.
   
• The margin would be more than sufficient for Otterbein's bullpen, which allowed just one earned run after the third inning.

STAT CHECK:

• Quincel, Perebzak and Adam Folk all ripped off three-hit days.
   
• Freshman Sam Sethna improved to 4-0 on the season with yet another nice middle-relief effort, keeping Kalamazoo off the board in the fourth and fifth.
   
• Braydon McCloskey chucked three smooth innings after that before Nick Plucinski took it home in the ninth, punctuating the day with a swinging strikeout.
   
• David Stechow hit a perfect 3 for 3 for the Hornets, who stranded 12 runners on base in the game.